


Forget the Score

by Anam_Writes



Series: princes love dragons; it's just a fact [12]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Kissing, Making Out, Post-Timeskip | War Phase (Fire Emblem: Three Houses), Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:13:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26336236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anam_Writes/pseuds/Anam_Writes
Summary: Claude teases Byleth, then offers her the rare chance to get even, retaliation free....Do her worst? If she could turn any pinker she would.“Close your eyes first then,” Byleth said.Claude obeyed, shimmying in his seat as he shut his lids fast.Byleth stood, smiling when Claude winced the slightest bit.“This won’t come to blows, I hope,” he gave a nervous laugh.“No,” Byleth leaned over. "I’m going to kiss you.”
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Series: princes love dragons; it's just a fact [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1610308
Comments: 31
Kudos: 188





	Forget the Score

Byleth never noticed how full his lips were. That was not entirely true. It was something she had noticed but did not draw her attention often: like the fact he was on the tall side of average, or that he was ambidextrous, or that he always left a little bit of beverage at the bottom of his cup, no matter how he tried to drain it. She had internalized it, knew it, but there was hardly occasion to reflect on it. 

His lips were full, they looked soft - even now, a bit chapped after days of speaking at the roundtable - and they parted for a stalling moment before he spoke. They turned up first on the right corner when he smiled before he broke out into eye-crinkling grins. When he poured her next cup of tea they pressed into a line. After he sipped his own drink they parted from porcelain to make a light, quenched sound. 

There were so many things to notice about Claude’s lips. That now, alone in the Sovereign Duke’s chamber in the Riegan estate, was apparently the best time for those little things to draw her attention was telling (or damning! She could not decide which.)

“I wonder what you see in me sometimes,” Claude said. 

He folded his hands together, elbows resting on the table in a pose that was equal parts informal and confident. The blatant disregard for table manners had struck her as flippant before. The fond set of his eyes on her made it feel more like a gesture of intimacy as of late.

The phrasing had her own lips tugging into a thin line. Her father had said something along those lines about her mother: “don’t know what she saw in me.” She’d heard similar musings from Ingrid, directed at the poor trail of girls her dear old friend left behind: “what do they see in him?” 

Byleth looked down at her drink, stayed silent, added a little more milk than she’d meant to, and swirled the spoon in the drink until it was an adequate shade of brown. 

“When you’re staring like that, I mean,” he clarified. “You look so fixated, intent. Dare I say, you seem interested. Be a friend, Byleth; indulge me! What has you staring at my face this time?”

“Your mouth,” she answered, before taking a sip. That sounded better than lips, didn’t it?

“My mouth,” his brows raised. The answer delighted him, much the same way novelty and trivia managed to. “Well, I can hardly begrudge you that. It’s a talented mouth, if I do say so myself. It does lots of things very skillfully: talking, feasting - ”

“It could use some practice staying still,” Byleth said. The words tumbled quickly, one tripping over the other, to cut short his list. 

“Ah, you don’t mean that,” Claude chuckled. Byleth only realized her cheeks were burning when the leather of his gloved finger pressed into the round curve, feeling cool by comparison. “Then again, your lips have always been so soft and glossy and pink, like two perfect petals. Maybe you know a secret I don’t.”

“You’re teasing me,” Byleth’s brow creased. 

“What if I am?” His next target was the deepening crevice between those very brows. Claude smoothed the skin out with his thumb, grinning at the mild hint of a pout that replaced the mask of hurt pride. “I have to have a little fun after that behemoth of a meeting.”

Byleth swatted his hand away. “Find something else to amuse yourself. This is bordering dangerously on not fun for me.”

Claude’s smile slipped a little. “I’m sorry.”

Byleth jumped when his hand came over hers, feeling a little shock run up her arm and down her back. If he noticed the shudder, he did not comment. 

“Please forgive me,” his eyes turned molten. The gloved thumb that had swiped over her brow now rubbed a reassuring pattern into her hand. “Really, my friend, you looked so intense. I had hoped to cheer you up; but I’ve only managed to make you cross with me. Typical, wouldn’t you say?”

Her face burned even more with the sincerity. Byleth couldn’t tell which was worse.

“It’s alright,” she said, waving a hand. 

Now it was Claude’s turn to pout, in full force. Byleth’s eye sank to his bottom lip, still so inviting, even with his antics. He stayed like that a moment, puzzling through something behind his eyes, before something seemingly dawned on him. 

“It’s not. I’ve embarrassed you. We must even the score,” he said. Claude leaned back in his chair, grin returned, opening his arms wide as though welcoming a blow from her fist. “Do your worst! Tease away! Then you can be content with some fun at my expense and I can be certain my dearest friend harbours no ill will.”

Do her worst? If she could turn any pinker she would. 

“Close your eyes first then,” Byleth said. 

Claude obeyed, shimmying in his seat as he shut his lids fast. 

Byleth stood, smiling when Claude winced the slightest bit. 

“This won’t come to blows, I hope,” he gave a nervous laugh. 

“No,” Byleth leaned over. She fixed her eyes once more on his full lips, as she came in closer she could feel the warmth that radiated off him. His lips would be that warm too, she guessed. The thought made her gulp. Claude sank further into his chair, shoulders relaxing at the answer but jaw setting tight when he felt her breath on his skin. “I’m going to kiss you.”

Claude’s eyes burst open. Byleth watched the red consume his face in a single wave. “Byleth, I-”

“I can’t do this with your eyes open,” Byleth cut him off. “Too embarrassing.”

His eyes screwed shut without question.

“I’d like that,” he picked his thought back up. “But damn, do you know how to fluster a fella.” 

“That’s the idea, right?” She asked. 

“Right.” He nodded.

Byleth drew towards him. The bow of her lip brushed on his skin as she parted her lips. 

"Wait." Claude said. Byleth stopped in place, the tip of her nose against his still. She could not help but tease him, turning her head slowly from side-to-side as she waited for him to speak further. It was a different sort of kiss that had his lashes fluttering, clearly fighting to keep his eyes closed. "You want to kiss me, don't you? This isn't just about the teasing? You want this?"

"I do," Byleth whispered between the two of them. 

The red spread to his ears. "Good. That's good. I...this is good."

"If your mouth is as talented as promised, it will be," Byleth smirked, expression molded just the way he'd taught her. 

She took the stalling part of his lips before the retort as her chance, capturing his bottom lips in both of hers. 

What she pulled from him was not the moan or muffled sounds she'd expected, but instead a whine. She smiled against his lips at the sound, at the deep heat she could feel from his cheeks. 

She rested her hands on his shoulders - part support, part leverage - to deepen their kiss. Byleth's tongue swiped along his bottom lip. He was all too eager to open his mouth, to bring a hand to her waist, to slide his tongue along hers. 

Byleth's world was spinning. She could not tell up from down or left from right as her mind twirled and her air supply ran low. She pulled back a second for breath before diving back into Claude of her own accord. Perhaps that is why she could settle in his lap, straddling him, so unabashedly as they kissed. 

Claude's hand at her back pressed her body into his. He didn't seem to mind or care when her armoured bodice jabbed at his ribs, or maybe he did and was too preoccupied with the prospect of getting her closer, closer, closer in spite of that. Hands - his hands, her hands - travelled, finding their way over metal and skin, tangling in fabric and hair. Byleth was more than satisfied to discover the guttural groan Claude made when she scratched the line of his beard. For his part, Claude seemed to like the way Byleth threw her head back to gasp when he squeezed her lace covered thigh - even if it meant the parting of lips. 

Byleth looked down at Claude when the burning in her lungs subsided a little. Her fingers brushed through his curls. His face was no less red but he seemed comfortable with the heat. His lips glistened, swelling pink and full with their kissing, even more tempting than they'd been before. His eyes were still closed. 

"You can open them now," she laughed, breathless. 

"You said you can't," he panted against the words. "You can't kiss if my eyes are open."

"I'll make an exception for you," she said. "You can open them."

When he did his eyes were glassy, dark. His pupils shrank at the light before blowing out quickly. She bit her lip at the hunger he gazed at her with. 

As promised, Byleth pressed yet another kiss to his lips. Claude did not whine or fuss at the first touch of their lips this time, welcoming the affection like a man starved for touch his whole life long. When Byleth parted from him again another pitched sound came from him - not quite a whine, but approaching the noise. 

He cleared his throat. "That...that was nice. Very nice. More than nice, actually. "

Byleth's smile broadened further than she knew it could. "It was."

"I was up to snuff, so to speak?" He asked.

She nearly snorted at the irony of the braggart with the "skilled mouth" asking such a question. "You were."

"I wouldn't be opposed - rather the opposite really - to doing that again," he said. Claude's eyes shifted, a hand leaving his waist to scratch against the grain of his chair's arm. "Frequently and exclusively, would be my preference, but I'm open to suggestions."

"I wouldn't be opposed to that either," Byleth answered. 

"Frequently?" Claude asked again. 

Byleth curled into his shoulder to hide that still ever deepening flush. Had she not run out of blood to make her redder? She nodded against his sash. 

"Exclusively?" There was a weight there, the kind he bore less for import and more like a layer of armour. 

"Yes," she said, because she knew he'd need that given voice, that anything less might sting like rejection to him. 

"In that case," Claude reached towards the table to pour another cup of tea. "I'd like to finish this and invoke that frequency part, if that's alright with you."

Byleth snuggled into him, burying her face in the seam between his shoulder and collar.

"Pour me a cup and we'll call that a deal."


End file.
